Encoded Hearts
by Gloria Patri
Summary: A girl often ventures into a world that, once upon a time, held her captive by means of protection. Two years after the jounrey is over, the three good friends find that things aren't as calm as they would hope... SoraOC, rating will go up later
1. Stained Glass

_"It's me, Lexira! Don't you remember me? ...Right. I wouldn't expect you to..."_

_Hearts aren't ment to be encoded..._

_...encoded hearts aren't meant to be._

_"True... name? I... I don't have one."_

_"No true name?"_

_"I'm just... Me. Not... Anyone else."_

_"But how can you be a nobo_

_BOOOOOO_

_d-d-d-d-d-d-d _

_"E"_

_How can_

_Noboooo_

**Data Corrupted**

**------------------------------ **

**Encoded Hearts  
**Chatper I

Stained Glass

He woke up again, sweating, in the bed he had known since he was a child, The only bed he had ever really wanted to know, yet, sadly, not the only one he had known. The young key bearer had been to many places before, and had resided in many different worlds. All much more luxurious than his small, secluded world. Though, it seemed he could never get a decent night's sleep ever since he had come 'home'.

Sitting upright on his bed, the young man ran a had down his face, as he stared out at the moon, hanging in the sky. A thought fluttered through his soul; maybe, somewhere, someone else in the other worlds could see this moon, without having to be in the same, drab world as he?

Yes, he thought.

That's a lovely thing to dream about.

--------------------

"It's not worth playing anymore if you're gone. It's just boring without you. All of you. Most of you..." She whispered, walking slowly around this forgotten stairway. This ascension to heaven, as she liked to call it.

It had been made a forbidden place among them. If she could travel into it with ease... It was only pure luck. Not even a 'battle of the fittest' kind of thing. She was weak, and she knew it. And although her logic could solve many things by itself, she was at a loss when it came to knowing why she had been the only one in this strange world, why it had held her captive while her comrades had fallen, one by one.

But now, she had a new goal. She would bring him back. And him, too. Just the two of them, just so that she could have this peace of mind. Just so that she could know that they had settled things, just so that...

"He's awakening again." She whispered, to no one at all. To the vague breeze that had flown by. "But how can that be...?" She asked herself, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms. She stood amidst nestling doves, over a large disk. She knew it was a mosaic, for having seen and heard of it a few times in the past. Though, she wondered why so many birds covered it at that moment. Why everything seemed so dull, whereas the light and colours would usually explode and surround the area in a welcoming feeling.

"You promised me last time really _was_ the last one, Roxas. You promised." She sighed, hanging her head and sitting down with the doves. Though after a while, feeling rather drowsy, she let herself lie on her side, gently petting the feathers of the nearest dove.

"You promised..."

_What did I promise?_

She blinked.

Impossible. It just couldn't be; she was nowhere near anyone. She was the last one, and wherever she would return would be just as empty as this place, give or take a few birds, of course.

"Roxas? Is that... You?" She asked hesitantly, her black dress fluttering quietly as she jumped on her feet. "Well, is it?" she asked, with a little more instance than she had dared use before.

_Why do you always call me-_

"ROXAS?!"

Silence.

She had greeted him with the most raw of silences. She didn't dare say anything; what, really, could she say after such a sudden appearance? There was nothing to add, nothing to reply, nothing to do, to say. She stood there, her dress floating, still, after the gust of wind that had ran through her along with that burst of blinding light.

"The name's Sora. It'd be fun if you could stop calling me Roxas, miss..." The key bearer sighed, again, running a hand down his face.

"Sora... It's such a beautiful name." The girl sighed, somewhat happily, smiling and the newly arrived young man and interlacing her hands in her back. "It means _sky_, did you know that?"

Sora quirked a brow at the girl; she was strange. She didn't look like anyone he had met before. She seemed to be from a world similar to Jack's, but completely different at the same time. Though, her mentioning Roxas had to mean she had some ties with Organisation XIII. And he was well bent on finding out just who she was and what she was doing there.

"What's... Your name?" Sora asked hesitantly, taking a few steps towards the girl, who didn't so much as flinch, or look back at him.

"...Lexira. My name is Lexira." She answered airily, looking down at the doves, smiling at one and picking it up. "I'm curious. I used to be the only one able to come in this world. How can you be here t-"

The doves, as if on cue, sang and fluttered away, carrying the girl's words away with their feathers. Her dress flew around as the birds took flight, and her own dove, the one she had held in her hands, flew after the entire flock had already taken off. She gave it her farewell, before turning her attention below her.

Stained glass.

It seemed so...

"Ethereal."

"What?"

"Unreal."

Not made by man... Or heartless, or nobodies, or anything else. What else could it have been made by? Not just a spirit... Right?

"Spirits can't do such incredible things..."

"You're creeping me out, now..."

"Am I?"

She giggled, spinning around on herself once or twice.

"Quite possibly. I scare myself."

The stained glass, she noticed, contained various portraits. The strang-Sora's, a girl's, an other young man's, and, somewhere at the bottom, she was blowing petals out of her hand. Unlikely, she thought, because there are no flowers around where I live.

The floor broke.

She started falling; but why?

This used to be her world... But Sora's still floating there. Not even flinching, it seems. He reached out to her, and grabbed her wrist. She didn't so much as make an effort to grab on.

"I see... This is yours." She whispered, reaching up with her other hand, and prying Sora's hand away from her captive wrist. She let herself fall, giggling like a little girl, spinning around on herself, only to disappear...

Not in a vortex made with tendrils of darkness, like Sora had expected from her.

Not in a flash of light, as anyone else would expect.

Not simply by fading away.

Not in a flurry of feathers...

But a flurry of petals, blown from her own hand.

--------------------

She woke up gasping again, from that world she had been used to visiting so often. Either in her dreams, or when she chose to visit that place out of pure nostalgia. But that time had been far from what she would expect from a 'routine visit' through that world. It had been enjoyably surprising, to find someone else there. Under that endless sky...

Right.

His name was Sora...

And, she remembered, the other platform, the other mosaic disk(which had been devoid of any bird whatsoever) on which she usually landed when going to that place, had depicted four other strange characters. One looked like a dog, the other looked like a duck...

And, well, the two others were very close friends of hers. Yes, she knew them very well... They had been her only friends. Well, Roxas, at least, had proven himself to be enjoyable company. The other one...

"...Oh? Already this late..?" Lexira sighed, swinging her legs over the bed she had claimed after they had all gone. A girl, one she was used to seeing around, gave her the light dress she used as a night gown, when she claimed to come for the last time. It was a rather dark and sorrowful reunion, seeing as, the first thing that other girl had said was 'This is the last time we'll see each other, Lexira.' She remembered how rude she thought that was. But, then again, she braced herself a little more readily when the girl actually DID leave, and for the last time.

Lexira frowned with closed eyes as she stretched once again, her elbow had popped. Not painfully; actually, the noise hurt more than the actual elbow. As strange as it sounds.

Lexira shook her head vigorously; it was well past dawn, and thusly no time to be lurking in the few memories she had retained of that dream. It was, she reasoned with herself, a dream, and really wouldn't ever be anything more than just that:

A dream.

--------------------

Two years.

It had been two years since he had come back home, with Kairi, and Riku, too. It had been two years since they had fought Xemnas, since they'd met up with the king and brought he and Donald and Goofy back to the Castle. It had been two years...

Since he hadn't so much as thought about the keyblade again.

It's not that he hated the thing, and neither did he resent seeing it after such a prolonged absence. It was just that... After two years, the young keyblade master had grown used to his relaxed life, although, at first, he found it all slightly boring. But of course, with no Heartless or Nobody around to take care of, Sora had had all the time in the world to catch up with that year he had been away from Kairi. Well, in fact, the _entirety_ of the time he had been away from the girl. And that, in fact, presented itself to be quite more than just a year.

Sighing, Sora got out of bed after realising that the sun wouldn't cease its relentless attack on his retinas until he got up and dealt with it. He made himself a quick breakfast; just two eggs with a little salt, and a glass of orange juice. Normally, he would've taken the time to eat more than that, but seeing as he had seen the keyblade overnight(he had gotten up and hit himself with it, just to make sure the pain and blade itself were real), he couldn't afford spending too much time on mundane things. He needed to talk to Kairi and Riku. Fast. Maybe try to come in contact with the King, or Yen Sid or... Well, _anyone_ who had any important amount of knowledge on what was going on.

But fortunately for the young man, he wouldn't have to search for his friends for a very long time; the moment he came out of his room, in the house he and his friends had loaned a while back, he found himself flooded with questions.

"I saw my keyblade last night!"

"Did you see it too?"

"What's happening, Sora?"

"What's happening in the other worlds?"

"Is it just us, or is something really wrong?"

"What happened last night?"

Sora was forced, much to his disliking, to answer negatively to all the questions. Though, after a few minutes of silence, he was free to think. And he couldn't help to wonder if that girl in his dream had anything to do with it.

But... As much as he tried, he couldn't remember her name or face.

--------------------

After a hearty breakfast, Lexira had headed out to do what she had gotten accustomed to doing every day; she went out for a walk through the town, in shambled as it may have been. She smiled when her small white cat came up to her. Strangely enough, although the entire town was desolate, in ruins, dark and rather gloomy, not to mention completely deprived of any life, the single cat seemed to always find a way to her. What surprised Lexira most, though, was the fact that the cat was actually _there_. The others had always sustained that there was no one else around but them. Simply because nothing else would be able to survive in such an isolated place.

"Hello, Sunshine." She greeted the cat, who mailed happily upon hearing the young woman. "Cute as ever today." She commented, bending down to scratch the tiny animal behind the ears.

The cat purred merrily, a positive response to the apparently appreciated gesture. Lexira stood up, taking the white cat in her arms. She asked it if it would like to come around town with her. She guessed it agreed when it closed its eyes and mailed happily, once again, extending a paw and bringing back to its chest.

"You know, Sunshine," Lexira began, looking around. It was cloudy and lukewarm, as always. "I had the strangest dream last night. Would you like to know what it was?"

A meowl, and she continued.

"Well you see, I was in that strange world again. You know, the one with all the stained glass? But this time, I was in a black dress, like those princesses. But without the icky sleeves. And this boy appeared."

The young woman surprised herself sounding a little nostalgic and longing. _But why would I sound that way?_ She wondered, unconsciously petting the top of the cat's head. _Given I'm not a nobody, I know I can feel things... But why would I be longing to see someone I don't know?' _She shook her head; she might as well stop thinking so much and pursue her recounting of last night's dream.

"We barely talked. I told him my name and he told me his. I was going to ask him why he was there too, but the birds flew away. And the stained glass floor showed people. The boy, Sora, an other boy, a girl, and I was at the bottom, blowing flower petals out of my hand. I thought it was stupid, because I've never had flowers before."

Lexira paused here, thinking back on her own thoughts. _Why was I so calm? I should've been a little panicked, at least. _She thought, trying to piece together her own behaviour. _It almost seemed like I was intoxicated. So breezy and... Strange._

"And then, the floor broke." The cat meowed here. "Yeah, I know! But the strangest thing is that Sora, the boy, he kept floating. And until then, I thought that this was all my world. But I was wrong. Because I figured out it was his world. And then ,guess what?"

The cat shook its head, cutely.

"I disappeared in a flurry of rose petals!" She exclaimed, shaking one arm whilst holding the cat in the other. "Crazy, right? I hope I never have a dream like that, ever again..." _I already lost my sanity, and I don't wanna know how losing my _insanity_ will look like. _Lexira sighed.

Her face suddenly lit up as she threw fugitive gazes left and right. Though, of course, after a second or to of thought, she found the action stupid. There was no one around to see her disappear into that world, anyways!

That thought actually struck a pang of sorrow and regret, which she all too hastily pushed aside.

"Would you like to accompany me to that world, kitty?" She asked, obtaining a positive reply from the cat. "Well, hang on tight, though! Because we've gotta fall a for a few looooong seconds before landing."

Lexira pulled out a knife from a small holster, strapped to her thigh. The blade glowed with an ominous green light. She stuck out her tongue to the side, as though thinking about where to slice.

"Here should be okay." She commented after a few steps, slicing through the air, creating some sort of gap, before jumping in, with her beloved white cat.


	2. Reigning Reflections

**Encoded Hearts  
**Chapter II

Reigning Reflections

Lexira had taken her time to climb those colorful stairs, explaining everything to the curious feline in her arms. For some reason, she felt that she should explain in detail eveything it would see. It wasn't as much for the cat's benefit as much as for her own. Because, really... Between you and me, is the cat really going to give a damn after it goes back home, whether or not it knows what the stained glass floors represent?

Not really.

Her "acesion to heaven" took a headty twenty minutes of her time. After whch she finally reached the highest tower and sat down on the glass floor. She extracted a book from her robe's pocket; before going out-being too lazy to change into something more appropriate- lexira had just but on one of those infamous black robes over her white nightfown.

She had careflly instructed the cat to stay still during her reading, and had informed it that she was already halfway through the small black book. She thusly proceeded to go through the story in a nutshell; or, atl least, what she'd read of it thus far.

"It's about a beautiful maiden and a man..." Lexira started, obviously uncertain as to whether or not she was doing justice to the story by recounting it this way. "The maiden was mysterious and beautiful, and just happened to appear in the man, the prince's, courtyard one day. His father, the king, instructed him that she was going to be his private maid, and would attend to his every need. But the prince, see, was really rude and mean, and some said he didn't even have a heart!"

The cat miaoed here, making the young woman laughed. She agreed with his unknown declaration; that _did_ sound like one of the Organisation XIII!

"But then, well, he started falling for the maid. And they lived WONDERFUL things together... And now, I'm at the part where the King called his entire court to announce some bad news. Sound interesting, Sunshine?"

Lexira giggled lightly as the cat bounced up and down, clearly making the girl know that the story intrifued it. Although Lexira had never had the certainty that the feline ever understood her, its enthousiam was enough to brighten her days cnsiderably. Hence why she nicknamed it Sunshine.

"So, back to our story." Lexira declared, somewhat solemnly, cracking the dusty crimson book open. The pages fluttered underneath her fingers and she tried to find that small red ribbon she had plaed where she had stopped reading. She found it after a few seconds of searching back and forth, and began reading, blissfully ignorant of the uproar cause by the very discovery of her existance.

--------------------

"I'm telling you, the exact woman at the other end of the floor was the one that jumped off!" Sora cried, trying to convince his friends that his dream had not only been a dream, but the revelation of a journey nearing its beginning.

Kairi had countered biitterly; it had just ben a dream, nothing more, nothing less. Most likely than not, it might've been his subconscious, which knew about the upcoming journey, that projected this odd image in his sleep. Though Riku had quickly caught on to the slight tone of jealousy in the younger girl's voice. Upon later confrontation, she agressively refused to admit anything.

"I agree with Sora." The former being of darkness declared after a few uncomfortable moments of silence. The younger keybearer's smile quickly returned, brightly as ever. He was clearly happy that someone was believing him. "And besides, this is the only thing we can connect with the appearances of the keyblades. We can at least try to work with it." He finished by shrugging, not daring to look at Kairi, wanting to avoid that deadly glare as long as he possibly could.

"Well..." the young redhead started, crossing her arms. "Do you remember her name, or what she looked like?" she asked, looking fixedly at the ground in front of her feet.

Sora came to answer, but the words seemed to be glued to his lips; nothing would come out. He tried as best he could to remember the girl's name, or, at least, her face. But nothing, simply _nothing_ at all, would come to mind. It's as though his brain was denying her very existance. And with reason...

"I... I don't remember." Sora whispered, narrowing his eyes, staring at some point in the horizon. He was clearly trying to piece together the reason(s) why he couldn't remember a bloody thing. "I just remember she was in that strange world, both on the flooring, which usually only has you, Riku, Donald, Goofy and me, and that she just dissapeared in rose petals."

Both Riku and Kairi sighed, the latter hanging her head in some form of exhasperation. Sora was decidedly a perfect hopeless.

-----

It took a few days before anything could be done regarding contacting someone in an other world. It had took more than just a little thinking, from all three keybearers, to figure out a way to use the things they learned and knew to talk to someone. _Anyone_. That would possibly know what was going on.

Kairi, one day, proposed to try and make some door or something to get to the strange world Sora had talked about. Seeing as, sooner than day, he had admitted going there two or three times prior, it might not just me _just_ a dream, but actually a real world. And if someone else had been there, and specifically said _'This is your world'_, then it _must_ be something more than just a stupid little freaky dream.

After finally managing to open a doorway to the King's castle, the gummi ship seemed to lock onto their location and just appear over the water, after four days of thinking and brainstorming. Strangely enough, the three friends were able to reach the castle without much difficulty; a single meteor corridor was all they needed to cross to reach their destination, as opposed to the usual three worlds and lord only knows how many corridors.

Upon coming out of the gummi hangar, hidden under a certain bush in the front garden of the castle, Sora was the first one to breath a sigh of relief when noticing the absence of heartless and nobody. At least, he thought, the worlds aren't under anything dark.

Needless to say that Donald and Goofy were the first ones to notice their long time friends. Goofy was the first one to throw himself _on_ Sora, who predictably fell backwards. Riku crossed his arms and chastissed the two 'guards' for being such slackers, before greeting them with somewhat a large smile. Kairi greeted them as hapily as usual, albeit in some tired manner(they had all spent countless hours trying to figure out a way to talk to the king). Though, both old friends were curious as to know why, all of a sudden, the three keybearers had suddenly found up at the castle. It's wasn't as though they just decided to show up, tired as can be, just for a simple visit.

"We have to talk to King Mickey." Kairi admitted, turning her eyes to the tiles floor of the main hall, smiling somewhat sadly.

"What for? Did something happen in the other worlds?" Donald ask, and, already, Sora winced at the urgency he could hear in his voice.

"It's nothing like that, really! We're just a little worried." Sora added, crossing his arms. He had given his share of explaning their being there; it was Riku's turn.

"The keyblades came to us again. We're just trying to find out why." The elder of the three finished, stuffing his hands in his pockets, silver hair picking up some unexistant breeze.

Both royal guards looked at each other, worry gleaming in their eyes. From the looks of it, they had already heard something similar from the very person the three old friends had wanted to come visit for more information.

"Sora? Kairi, Riku? Well, I guess it's time we saw each other…"

--------------------

"Come on, Sunshine! Faster!" Lexira cried, running as fast as she could, through the ruins of the Castle that Never Was, trying her best to avoid any bit of falling debris. She was trying to get up to the Altar of Naught, but climbing half-destroyed stairs without any particular power was proving to be harder than she thought. And having some weird people running after her wasn't making her situation any more appealing than it was in the beginning.

Two strange women had proceeded into the young woman's room, as she came back from the stained glass world(she always reappeared in her room, for some reason). They hadn't spoke a word, but Lexira was, actually smarter than that, though it's a debatable opinion. She was certain, at the point where the two women were about to grasp her arm, that they were far from being just some adoptive parents of some, any, sort.

So she had taken her legs, and Sunshine, to her neck, and ran as fast as she could. _Running away would be so much easier if I could open those damned portals!_ Lexira cursed herself, deeply wishing that she had let herself be consumed by the dark a little more, if only to able to warp wherever she pleased. It was, at the time, a selfish wish, and she knew it. But if it allowed her to save her life at that point, she would've gladly given into the darkness for it.

-----

"There's no where else to run, kitty."

Lexira panted heavily, her breathing coming in ragged, irregular beats. Her back was facing her two assailants, though the voice had come from a third one. She mentally cursed everything out in the world; why, oh WHY, had she insisted upon staying in the dreaded castle? It was like a beacon for anyone who wanted to know more about the XIII, or whatever else revolved around the damned place! She really had been stupid upon choosing to stay there.

"To run, maybe..." she exhaled, double over her knees in some vague hope to catch her breath a little faster. "But who says... I couldn't escape somewhere... Where you could never go?" Lexira asked, with somewhat of a smirk, reaching down to the small knife holster on her thigh.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that, Sugar. We still have a lot of things to teach you!" one of the women chirped, her odd, green hair folwing in brilliant locks, as she swirled on herself. Golden eyes seemed to glow in the faint lighting of the outdoors. "You know, we of the Reign don't take well to people who don't listen to us."

"The... Reign...?" Lexira breathed, frowning at the fragmented tiles underneath her feet. All of a sudden, everything else seemed to fade into nothingess; her breath came easily, physical fatigue fading into a dark abyss. Such was the extent of the young woman's curiosity, one would suppose.

"Yep! The Reeeeeign. It's a puny world for what we really are. I mean, it sure as hell sounds better than The Group-of-people-who-realy-have-nothing-better-to-do-with-their-improvised-lives-than-to-bring-back-the-darkness-and-rule-over-the-world. Amiright?" the other woman said, crossing her eyes, a foxish grin gracing her otherwise flawless, deeply tanned features.

Her hair seemed to be as white as the purest clouds, and her skin seemed like molted chocolate, swirling around nearly-white eyes, giving her an ethereal look.

"Bring back darkness? You're crazy!" Lexira cried, finally turning around. Her curly black locks caught in the abnormally rough winds around the top of the Altar, pristine green eyes staring at golden and pearl ones with some fury she had never felt before. "The worlds are finally free from everything _bad_ that had ever happened, and you plan on bringing it back?!"

"Yes, that _is_ the point, dear." The male voice tunes in for the second time. It took Lexira only a second of two to stop him, somewhere on the edge, to her left. "But those two innocent women forgot to mention the part where we destroy our alters." On those words, the man took a small leap frowards, his booted feet soundlessly touching the fractured tiles of the Altar.

His features seemed to have been carved with utmost care; shocks of blonde hair flowing freely, to what Lexira approximated would be down to his mid back. Waves remained untamed, visible even though the sunkissed locks were sluggishly tied behind his head. Piercing yellow eyes gazed mercilessly down at the younger girl.

"Atlers? You're not making any sense at all." Lexira snapped, lighlty jumping as Sunshine jumped on her shoulder. She took a few tentative steps back until she hit the railing, her eyes darting from one stranger person to the other.

"Alters, dear," the green haired woman started, twisting her hair between her fingers. Orange eyes stared down at her. "are like the mirrored version of someone... Their opposite, actually. And WE, members of the Reign, are the rather obnoxiously powerful alters—"

"Of the seven princesses." The blonde man finished, carefully inspecting his nails.

"Screw you, Ytuaeb." The green haired woman spat, crossing her arms. She was obviously offended, seeing as the man, Ytuaeb, stole the words from her mouth.

"...the seven princesses." Lexira repeated without any intonation, blinking a few times, before laughing incredulously. It made no sense to her that these... _creatures_(because she certainly wouldn't give them the benefit of being called alters) could be anything like, or _unlike_ the seven princesses. As well as a princ_esse_ clearly couldn't be a man. Much to their dismissal, apparently.

"It's a one-in-a-million chance." Ytuaeb intonned bitterly, frowning with annoyance. "Alters can be men or women, it depends onnothing at all. And really, _alter_ is a pathetic word descended from Alter Ego. I really prefer to call myself an Ether."

Again, Lexira couldn't help but laugh. This all seemed so ridiculous to her! Though, she knew that this was all serious. And mostly, she knew that this was too much for her to take at the moment. She grinned, already plotting her great escape.

"Can I at least know your names before I get knocked unconscious and dragged to whatever lair you live in?" Lexira sighed, crossing her arms and draping a serious stare upon the three.

"My name's E-T-I-H-W. Pronounced Ethough, thank you very much." The dark-skinned woman declared, swinging her hips to the left and resting a balled fist on them.

"My name's Leira." The green haired woman muttered, glaring daggers at Lexira. Though the latter guessed why that would be; they nearly shared the same name. Though why that was profoundly eluded the younger woman.

"And I'm Ytuaeb, as you already... What are you doing?"

It was already too late.

After memorizing the names, Lexira had thrown herself over the crumbling railing, holding Sunshine in one arm, tearing a hole in the air with the dagger in her other hand, woman and gash in space quickly dissapearing before anyone could do anything about it.

"Allerednic won't be happy about this."


	3. Royal Trainwreck

**Encoded Hearts  
**Chapter Three

Royal Trainwreck

------------------------------

As opposed to the idea that the Queen had originally proposed, Sora, Kairi, Riku and the King had settled down in the library. The king, from the get-go, offered his deepest, most sincere apologies for never so much as mentionning the Reign before. He took the time to say that he really should have warned them about the threat that might eventually be a casualty to every world.

And the mention of the aforementioned group brought up questions about the Reign; who were thay? What were they? What were they planning on doing?

"They're not a really nice group of folks, I can tell you that." Mickey shrugged, narrowing his eyes and looking at the floor, frowning at it in turn. "They're alters, the opposite of a person who took on a body of its own. They call themselves Ethers, though, because they're like something that never existed."

"Do we all have Ethers? How many are there?" Kairi asked, as the held her elbows in her hands. Concern seemed to tint her voice; her eyes were narrowed at the king, in utmost worry more than anger or frustration.

"There are only seven that I know of. If there are more, they haven't come out of the dark yet." The king replied, closing his eyes, tapping his foot on the library tiles lightly.

"Why only seven? What makes them different?" Riku asked, from his spot near the door. He had refused to take place in one of th three chairs that had been at their disposition earlier, prefering to stand by the door. Not unlike a watchdog.

"Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine..." The King took a pause, appearig to have forgotten the name of the seventh woman.

"Kairi."

The mentionned girl flushed and shook her head. Although she found it flattering that Sora would reffer to her as a princess, she was much too modest to ever resign herself to such an important title.

"But I'm nothing like one of the Princesses, Sora..." she whispered, looking away to her side.

"Either way, there are seven Ethers that need to be stopped. As of yet, we aren't too sure what they plan on doing, but it has something to do with the Heartless and Nobody." Mickey explained carefully, crossing his arms in turn.

"Heartless? Nobody? But I thought we took care of them already..!" Sora whined, slumping further into his chair. That forboding air about his before, as his eyes had been partly hidden from view my tufts of gravity-defying hair, had seemed to dissapear. Either a mask was carefully back in black, or once again shattered to pieces.

"Darkness will never dissapear from the world, Sora." Riku answered carefully, not too loud. He didn't want to sound like he had, before. Convinced that darkenss would always be around, always consuming everything in its way.

"Riku's right, Sora. As long as people continue to carry darkness in their hearts, heartless will always be around. Though why there are Nobody still walking is still a little..."

The king was cut rather abruptly, when the whistle of a train sounded in the distance. The very sound was something disturbing; trains didn't run anywhere near the castle, as far as any of them were concerned. And Yen Sid's castle was Definitely a few worlds away from where they were.

At that moment, broom came flying through the door, seeming as distressed as an enchanted broom can ever look like. There was a note caught in its bristles, which the King quickly extracted before reading. He frowned and headed towards the door, Riku following closely behind, followed in turn by Sora and Kairi.

"Oh my..." Mickey muttered, staring at what had once been a rather marvelous 'magic ghost train'. It seemed like it had been rather harshly shoved right into the lush garden, a foot or two wide crater around it.

The door opened, and before the person in the titlted doorway could say anything about their situation, the delicated frame stumbled to the ground in a flurry of black locks and white scarves.

--------------------

Lexira had made it into the stained glass world, Sunshine burrying his claws into her shoulder. She winced lightly, looking around. Something most definitely wasn't quite right in there. Or, perhaps, everything had turned back to normal.

The world was filled with light; unexistent skies that had, before, seemed black, and as thick as metal, had now conceded to a clear blue sky, only barely tainted by a cloud or two. The stained glass towards had been conversted as well; white trimmed the depicted scneces, whilst the lines in between, which had been black as far as the young woman could remember, had been replaced by silver linings.

"Truly beautiful." She breathed, Sunshine meowing his approval at the statement. "Like it too, eh?"

Walking around the smaller, lesser platform, Lexira carfully took care to examine every details of the depicted crowd. Nothing had seemed to change when it came to the actual stained glass. Just... Everything around it. Beginning her ascent, the girl couldn't help but let this welcoming feeling flood her. She knew better than to blindly trust this world; after all, it had already deceived her once before. But she just didn't care at that moment.

-----

"The book's still here. How strange. I could've sworn I took it back." Lexira commented, staring down at the fairytale book. Sunshine pounced on it, and carefully sat himself down.

The book's cover flew open, as though on its own accord, sending the cat flying a few feet ahead. Lexira eyed the book curiously, some expression of worry plastered on her face. That book suddenly look a lot less fun to read than it had before.

As the pages fluttered by, the girl started to wonder whether or not it would ever stop. _'It seems well set on going all through the end.'_ She thought, somewhat sourly, approaching the collection of paper as it stopped on a page, near the end. There was no text, save for the title to an illustration.

"...The ghost train? Oh please. What next, a ghost _book_?" Lexira muttered sarcastically, crossing her arms. Sunshine approached her quietly, jumping back up into her arms.

When the book started to glow, though, the girl dressed in black started to think better of insulting the book.

"And now books have feelings. Oh joy."

There was a bright flash of light, and both cat, book and owner were gone. The world slowly started swirling together, darkness fusing with everything. It had reverted back to what it was meant to be.

-----

"Sunset Station." Lexira muttered, looking up at the sing that hung over her head. "Well, what a nice concept that is." She continued, scratching behind Sunshine's ears

She walked away from the station, proceeding to look around the town. There really wasn't much of anything; a few nice people to talk to here and there, but nothing other than that. There were the undergound tunnels in which she ventured for a while, before returning to the town to grab something to eat. After satiating their hunger, though, Sunshin and Lexira thought it best to head to an other town. Perhaps something a little more interesting?

"Well, there's that famous train again." Lexira sighed, boarding the purple train, for what seemed to be the first time. After all, the had just been warped to the station, without boarding the trian.

As its wheels slowly started to move into action, Lexira frowned. She already knew something was wrong. And, from what she knew from her last experience in the stained glass world, her bad feeling were always right. Considering she was in a trian, the girl prefered ignore whatever it was her bad feeling could have implied.

There was a bright flash, again, and Lexira swore; those flashes would certainly wind up burning a hole through her retinas one day. Although the site outside the window certainly blew her mind. It seemed as though the train had been plunged into space, into some kind of nebula.

"...Aweso..."

The train started to rattle furiously, causing the words to be cut out of Lexira's mouth, as she fell to the ground. Groaning in pain after finding out that wrists could bend in a way she had never seen before the girl pushed herself up and stumbled forwards, to the cabin.

At the very moment when her hand brushed the door, the train was flung backwards, now parallel to whatever wall they had hit. Lexira was forced to hold onto the riling at the end of the wagon, as to not fall off into complete and total oblivion.

What she thought had been a wall they ran into...

"H-heartless." She stuttered, staring in shock and fear at the gigantic thing.

A large, fading black hand approached her. Obviously, as she was equally prone to human emotions, Lexira screamed. But not the kind of scream that you would expect from a damsel in distress. Quite the opposite. She was screaming threats to the giant heartless, rather carelessly and clueless as to what her own words meant.

"Let go of me you stupid heart eating oaf!!" She scrieched after trying her best to wrench herself away from the fingerless hand that had wrapped itself around her. "Let go of me, or else!!"

If she hadn't known any better, she could have sworn the offensive thing was just laughing at her vain attempts to sound threatening. But when its mitten-like hand started to burn, and fall away in wisps of darkness, it was a little more reluctant to hold on.

With a cry that wasn't human nor animal, the giant heartless slammed the frightened body back into what was called the ghost train, before throwing it as far away as it could, using its only remaining hand, soon to be its only remaining arm. The light emanated from Lexira's heart, it seems, still continued to ravage the heartless' body.

"Come on Sunshine! Think!" Lxira moaned, feeling all too well that the train was flying through the air, whistling through worlds, heading for who knows where. "Come on, there's GOT to be something out there that can stop us!" She cried, not even really planning on getting an answer from the cat. She just needed to find some way to stay alive.

--------------------

The girl recovered was quickly identified; Sora immediately pointed at her, looing aghast, saying _she_ was the girl with him in that world. Though, when asked a name, he couldn't tell. He couldn't remember, even when faced with her. The king concluded that they'd just have to keep her under close watch until she woke up. Judging by the looks of it, she didn't seem like anyone who could harm them.

"She could still be someone working for the Reign." Riku had pointed out, which had thusly lead to suspicions of many things. But affiliation with the Reign was the only one that anyone had dared voice.

Carefully deposited on one of the beds in one of the numerous guest chambers, the young woman's injuries, surely aquired during the crash of the large wagon, were tended to. Minnie insisted to take care of the girl herself, saying that a woman should only be bandaged by an other woman.

Which also implied that Kairi was the only other one allowed into the room with the Quuen.

A glass of water and a tray of toast and butter were left on a bedside table, should the girl wake up during their absence. Which, if any of them thought about it, was unlikely, seeing as they took turn watching over her until she woke up. As to be able to explain her condition, where she was and, mostly, why she wouldn't be allowed outside the castle.

It was Riku's shift when she woke up.

"Where... In flaming hell did that bloody son of a gun throw me?" she girl swore, rubbing her head gingerly. Clearly, she hadn't entirely recovered from what could've been some minor concussion from being thrown around in that train.

Riku raised an eyebrow; he didn't even know the girl, and he could already tell that she was stranger than anyone he'd known. And that included people from other worlds, _and_ Sora. She gave a good display of language, not to mention that she had a gift to ask the best questions in the oddest ways.

The silver-haired young man couldn't help but have something nag at him. Who _was_ this son of a gun? Or _what_, if anything, could have thrown a train straight into the the courtyard?

"You're in one of the chambers of King Mickey's castle. Your train landed in the garden." Riku answered, after letting the young woman swear off her apparently brutal headache.

"...The King." She repeated, looking up, somewhat dumbfoundedly, at the seemingly older male. "Mickey. Mouse. Oh boy, oh boy..." the girl whined, darting to the nearest window, looking outside. It coincidentally gave a pretty good view of the wreck the wagon had made of the courtyard.

"Oh, damn it!" She growled, hitting the window sill before heading for the door, finding it was blocked. By a six foot tall man. Who really didn't seem willing to budge.

"I was told not to let you go out." Came the ever so short, unsatisfying reply from Riku.

"No frickin' duh, brainiac. I noticed." The young woman shrugged, crossing her arm. "Well, this won't do. I'll get beat up to a bloody pulp, turned into a dusk and heartless, and THEN be killed. The joys of life, don't you agree?"

-----

The King and Sora were busying themselves with writing a small set of questions for the new guest I nthe castle. Sora had resigned himself to easier, simple and relatively _safe_ questions, whereas Mickey seemed to be a little more aggressive in his choice of words. It might just have been an impression, but Sora had the distinct feeling that the King knew the girl that had landed on his grounds. And he didn't think it to be a good thing.

"Sora! Mickey!" Kairi called, running into the library with a rather large smile. "The girl, she woke up!"

-----

"Uhhhh, uh, h-hi." The young woman stuttered, suddenly loosing all that fierce demeanor when she saw the King walking through the double doors. "I mean, pleased to meet you." She added, taking a bow.

"Please, sit down." Mickey said, most likely ordering the girl to sit down rather than offering it. A small round table and two or three white chairs were in the right corner iof the room.

"What's your name?" Kairi asked, choosing, instead of Riku(who had joined the three others at the table), to stand by the door.

"_He_'s supposed to know it." The young woman stated bluntly, shoving her finger in Sora's direction. The young man blinked a few times and shook his head vigorously, a clear sign that he either didn't know, or couldn't recall. Sighing in what seemed like defeat, the girl stared down at her lap.

"My name's Lexira, and I need any help I can get, Sir. The Reign's after me."


	4. Shadowed Designs

**Encoded Hearts  
**Chapter Four

Shadowed Designs

------------------------------

Sora had to admit to himself that he had lied, somewhat, after the girl-Lexira- had pointed him. He had, for a brief moment, forgotten everything about the dream and the flower petals. He hadn't spoken a word about the resemblance, and perhaps the correspondance, of the two girls.

_Yes, _he concluded_, I _did_ see her before, but I really don't know her. _And for some reason, he wish he had; known her, that is. The young woman seemed to have this flamboyant personality that attracts everyone's attention, and not necessarily in a bad way.

"I had being secluded." Lexira moaned, rolling to her left. He had been injured slightly, bruised and scraped, upon landing in the courtyard. Bandages adorned her arms here and there, as well as her legs.

Lexira had insisted on keeping the white dress, composed of various layers of snowy silken rectangles, not unlike scarves. She said that it really was the only thing she could hold onto to try to make sense of what was happening. The dress, and the Cat, Sunshine, that had tagged along with her.

"You have to understand that the King doesn't really want someone he doesn't know wander around the halls." Sora sighed, after repeating the sentence for what seemed to be the hundreth time that day.

"He doesn't, but you do! Why can,t you do anything, Sora?" Lexira asked, her tone beginning to hold more of a pleading edge to it in the past half hour. "Please? Just the garden, to smell the flowers...! And sunshine's tired of being in this icky white room too, aren't you?"

The was a meowl of agreement, which did nothing to enlighten Sora's mood. It was bad enough he had to be stuck with a girl who insisted on the fact that he knew her, but she had to have a cat along with her to support everythign she stated. As stupid as it may be.

At that moment, there was a knock at the door. Lexira's head rose ever so slowly, staring intently at the tall white doors. Her piercing green eyes seemed to burn two dots into the white wood as the knob turned.

"Sora, it's my shi-"

Before Kairi could even finish her phrase, Lexira had jumped to the door(which had conveniently been locked from the outside) and rather brutally shoved the redhead out of the way, to proceed to running down the halls. Sunshine merrily pranced close behind her, happy to be able to run... More or less freely.

"Don't look back don't look back..." Lexira muttered to herself, closing her eyes and running through the small crowds of broom and buckets that had the aweful luck to get in her way. Water was split everywhere and stray bristles littered the carpeted floor. She would have stopped to apologize, she really would've. But she didn't really have any time to waste.

"The Reign's going to come here soon. I have to get away to save them." She reasoned, and parted the entrace doors, ready to hijack the gummi ship in the hangar and make her great escape.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"...Shit."

-----

Lexira had been intercepted in the main hall, at the doors, by none other than the King himself. Keyblade at the ready, it had appeared as though he had already been busying himself with fighting someone.

Or some_thing_.

And as things turned out, Mickey had carefully taken the time to explain to Lexira that they had been keeping her locked up for her own safety, not for the castle's. Yes, he knew she wasn't a threat to anyone. If anything, she would be the one to help them all to save the several worlds.

"But, what _were_ you fighting, out there?" Lexira asked, carefully crossing her legs under the small, round, white table that had been peacefully waiting in the corner of her (rather larger)room. "It didn't really look as though there was anything in the yard..."

"Heartless."

Lexira's heart sank, deeper than she had ever thought imaginable. And the look on the King's face, on of utter defeat and self-deception, wasn't helping her feeling at all. The heartless were supposed to be banned from at least three worlds, and the castle, _this_ castle, was supposed to be one of them. Considering that everyone's hearts were relatively untainted by darkness.

Unless...

"It's not your fault, Lexira, don't worry about it." Mickey sighed, with something resembling a smirk, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "Yes, you come from the dark realm, but that doesn't mean you're a part of it. Why, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you've a pure a heart as Sora!"

"That... Can't be." Lexira whispered, wringing her lands in her lap. "I was almost born and raised in darkness. The first recollections I have date back to when I was first picked up by... Uh, I think it was Marluxia... Or Larxene. I can't just be... Well, like Sora." She tried, mostly a desperate attempt to convince herself that she hadn't spent years in a domain that never should have even greeted her.

"You don't remember anything before they found you?"' the king asked, suddenly very alert and paying a little too much attention to the young woman, for her own liking. "Are you a nobody?"

"No, I am _not_ one of those heartless... Idiots." Lexira sighed, inwardly cursing herself for calling all thirteen of them _idiots_, of all things. The organization had been the ones who had shielded her from most of the horrible things that went on in the world. They had given her something to wake up for every morning, as well as a roof over her head, clothes on her body and something like a family, as fragmented and on its way to dissapearing as it was.

"But they were the only idiots that were good enough to me as to take me in as one of their own."

The king shrugged, crossing his arms. Not only did everything make no sense at all to him, but at the same time, every piece of the puzzle was starting to come together, one piece at a time.

The Reign wanted this girl, a girl that had been something particular to Organization XIII, and apparently, something of enough value for the greatest heartless to obey any orders. And with what she had told him beforehand, before he had began to explain his own situation, it made everything all the more clearer. She was able to access an other world enitrely, and, it seemed she could twist its realities to suit her own needs.

She was, without a doupt, a precious gem the King had decided it was best to protect. At least until he found out what her true potential was.

"Can you wield a keyblade?"

Lexira laughed; until a few hours ago, she had been certain that there were only two keybearer(and even then, she wasn't all that certain about it). The idea had always been appealing, yes; having that much power in the palm of your hand... But it never crossed her mind to fight with one.

"I'm sorry, sir..." she giggled, covering her mouth. "But that's a question I'm afraid I find completely ridiculous!"

The king chuckled lightly at that remark. He admitted it to himself, it had been a rather stupid and pointless question. But, at least, he had the certainty that this girl wasn't really more than what she seemed. For the moment, at least. He had yet to find out what other intriguing secrets she witheld.

"Although..." Lexira started, her visage sombering into what seemed with deep thought, as though she was trying to grasp a percel of information that just constantly slipped away from her needing grasp. "I had a dreamm, in that world, about that girl... Kairi, right?"

The king's ears twitched, and not very pleasantly. He had this distinct feeling that what this girl, what Lexira was about to tell him, wasn't something he needed to have in his mind at the time.

"I saw her combine a dusk with a heartless warrior. But the heartless was still there afterwards. She only used one of the hearts it had taken from someone. Though she dissapeared, and the usk started to transform into someone. The woman looked like a mix of me, Kairi and Naminé."

--------------------

"Eithw, we have to do something about this. She can't just go running around like an idiot."

"There's nothing we can do about her free will, Elleb."

"What about turning her into a heartless?

"Shut up, Enimsaj. That's just make things worse."

"We could get Iriak to put her back together?"

"Come on, you know that'd never work, Leira. Iriak would never comply."

"Would you idiots just _shut up_?"

The Reign followers instnatly stopped conversing about Lexira's fate, and concentrated on the newly arrived member. Allerednic.

"I'm not pleased with you three." He stated bluntly, vaguely gesturing at Leira, Etihw and Ytuaeb. "You've let be down once again. Our leader won't be pleased, you're aware of that?"

"It's not our fault the bloody wench threw herself of the fricken toweer to-!!" Etihw started, bursting into an other one of her screaming fits, her snow white hair almost snapping around as she jumped up off her chair.

"It's not worth it." Leira shrugged, cutting the furious Ether with a wave of her hand. "We put ourself in this crappy mess and we just have to get out of it."

Ytuaeb kept to his silence, choosing to stay out of the conversations going around as to avoid saying something he may regret.

"Xeiri will not be pleased of your actions. All of you." Ellerednic stated, as if completely ignoring the bickering girl in front of him. "I, for one, have successfully accomplished the simple mission he has given me. Can you, any of you, say the same?"

The room became coated with a thick, hateful silence, everyone in the room cursing someone else for their own failure. Ethers were simply like that. They were unable to live with the burden of failing something of rather great importance. They thusly dumped the responsibility on someone else, regardless of whether or not that person was even there at the moment of failure.

"We need to retrieve that mumbling wench before she gets us more exposure than we already have. Up until this day, the Reign's name has remained in the shadows. I'm afraid that this is the time for us to act and fulfill what has been planned for us since our birth."

"But... We can't just do anything." Elleb spoke up, crossing his arms as he rested his feet on the long table. "Something too harsh will push her away, but if we're too subtle, she'll agree long after we actually need her."

"...You have a valid point, Elleb." Somewhere in the room, someone muttered a faint _for once_. "But our leader already has a plan for us all to exectue individually. If one fails, the plan can still stand. Though, if three of you should fall or fail, everything we've worked on for all these years will have been for nothing." The imposing ether took a pause, sitting down on his rather luxirious chair, at one end of the long table.

"But I don't exect more than two of you to die during this. Dismissed."

-----

"We can't just sit here, Aller." She growled, sitting in front of the one who had trashed her earlier. "_We_ need to do something now. I don't care about the others, I just want what I was promised."

"You'll have it all in due time, Leira. As soon as Iriak wakes up." Allerednic said passively, his fingers interlaced as his elbows rested on the table. "Once he awakens, we will be able to do a great number of things that we are currently unable to do."

"I don't _care_ about Iriak." Leira growled, louder than before, slamming a fist on the table. "I want to feel those emotions! Not just this... Deep loathing of everything alive! I want to be in love, I was to laugh honestly, _honestly_, you understand? I hate sorrow and pain, and remorse and hatred. I hate it! Isn't it ironic?"

Allerednic chuckled darkly, his piercing near-white eyes staring at the woman in front of him.

"There really isn't anything we can do until he wakes, Leira. Though, if you feel like dying today, please, be my guest. Just don't hinder our plans more than you already have."

On that, the imposing man stalked off and out the door.

"...I'm sorry I can't hate you as much as you want me too..." the green haired girl whispered, closing her eyes and she cluched her chest painfully.

Yes, being an Ether really was a horrible thing.

-------------------

"HEARTLESS?!"

"Donald, that really wasn't necessary."

Lexira massaged her temples gingerly, trying to make the pain of the rabbid duck's something-like-agony-cry go away. But, of course, the stupid chiken wouldn't give her that opertunity.

"But we got rid of them! REALLY!"

"Donald, I believe you, but this is just how things are, and it's not Lexira's fault." Mickey sighed, shaking his head, once more, at the guard's naïveté. Even after trying to explain to him beforehand that he was obliged to fend off enemies from the dark reamls, after describing the heartless perfectly, he couldn't help the duck's rather bashful(and painful) reaction to the name.

"But it _is_ my fault!" Lexira cried, slightly jumping up and down in some exasperated way. "They weren't here before _I_ got here! And I'm from the darkness, the World that Never Was!"

"What's all the noise about?" Sora muttered, apparently just waking from a nap he had taken in the room he had taken to occupying during his stay at the castle. "Something about heartless... Though I'm probably wrong."

The young man searched a pair of eyes to prove him wrong; Lexira's emerald eyes turned to the floor the instant he came out of the room, Doland whistled at stared at the ceiling, while the King had sighed.

"...No way."


	5. Striking Awakening

**Encoded Hearts  
**Chapter V

Striking Awakening

----------

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for anything to happen, I swear..!" Lexira cried, choking a sob. They were all such good folk, and there she was, just bringing more and more misery to everyone in more than one world.

Sora sighed, hanging his head. Heartless going around the worlds again; that was just a jolly good ol' way to bring back horrible memories, and events he would've rather left forgotten in a deep black pit at the back of his mind. _And if the heartless are around..._ He stopped his thoughts there; the keybearer didn't want to dare think about what else could happen now that this outbreak had appeared.

"Shucks, don't worry so much, you guys. Maybe it's just a one-time thing, y'know?" Goofy spoke up for the first time, nervously tapping his foot on the carpeted hall floors.

"It's not isolated, trust me." Lexira spoke up, unable to keep that single tear from streaking down her cheek. "They had come back to the World that Never Was when I left. When the Reign a..." She paused, narrowing her eyes, nearly dangerously.

The remainder of the voiced thought didn't need to be said. Everyone had understood exactly what it meant. The Reign had sent the Heartless after Lexira back at the castle, and if they were able to do that, it most likely meant that they were from the darkness, and that they would now be playing the cards Sora and the others had thought to have eliminated.

"This isn't any good." The King shrugged, shaking his head. "Weaker alters are bound to start appearing once the Reign figure out how to make them, and Nobodies and Heartless are probably already causing trouble."

The small crowd fell silent; some time during the discussion, Riku and Kairi had slipped in at the end of the hallway. Kairi seemed to fidget nervously, whilst her elder friend just seemed to stand there in plain, uncovered awe.

"Um, you guys, I think you should come see this."

--------------------

"We can't let them just walk around the worlds like that!"

"Yes, your Majesty, but there sn't much we can do. We can't afford to divide ourselves to better control the heartless and nobody." Ytuaeb spoke carefully, kneeling before a tall, large throne.

The golden chair was occupied by a small cloakedframed, sitting cross-legged in their spot of choice. They didn't seem too old, by their height, nor very masculine. Their voice was pitched, but not annoyingly so.

"Then find a way to make Ethers weaker than you and send them out!" the figure ordered, their fingers truming the golden armrest impatiently. "I don't care how you do it, just get those damn imbeciles to make more Ethers."

"Yes, your Majesty." Ytuaeb muttered, whisking himself out of the throne room, leaning against the large double doors as he closed them behind him.

----

_Wake up, it's time._

It had never been time. It had always been darkness, loathing, hoprrifying sounds and thoughts.

_You need to open your eyes._

Horrible powers cloaking true desires.

A desire to become stronger.

And overpowering need to be whole.

It had never been time to accomplish everything, it would never be time to do anything. There had never been any time, to begin wth. Just suspended motions, incomplete actions.

_She has awakened. What about you?_

Awakened?

That poor little excuse for a Maiden? It was almost enough to make him laugh. She was so weak, so vulnerable. How could she ever be able to use such powers without taking notice of them beforehand, or even honing them?

_It is time for you to show the world who you really are._

Not only that world. That pittiful world.

_All the world will kneel to your powers._

"Darkness will rule all..."

-----

"Allerednic!" Enimsaj cried out, running through the halls as fast as he could. "Aller! Get the hell out of your stupid little daze and get your ass OVER HERE!" the furious Ether roared, running through the mansion, desperately trying to find the man.

"Calm down you idiot." Elleb shrugged, roughly shoving the other Ether back and Enimsaj approached at a rather dangerous pace. "Al's talking with Leira and Etihw. He doesn't want to be—"

"Iriak's awake you god damned moron!"

--------------------

Lexira carefully examined the body that lay in her bed. She seemed to pay some medical attention to the man that lay in the bed she had previously slept in. Taking his pulse, listening to his breathing, checking for any lacerations or bruises, or perhaps some aping hole in his chest.

"Nothing. He's perfectly human." She stated in awe, blinking at the resting body in front of her.

Sora took a step back, staring wide-eyed at the body, while Riku kept a straight face. Kairi seemed to be going mad, pacing throughout the room whilst the King was just standing by the door with bot harms crossed over his chest. Though the group's thoughts were fairly similar:

_It's just plain impossible for him to be alive._

Kairi and Riku had quietly made their way in the hall and to the group. Kairi had explained that something rather peculiar had happened while she and Riky had taken to getting rid of a few heartless. While fighting, a nobody had just appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. And that wasn't even the peculiar thing.

"I just felt this great sadness." Kairi had explained, clutching her chest almost painfully. "I just prayed for that person to have a heart again so that they could settle that pain. I was about to lay down the heartless with the keyblad when a bright light flooded the courtyard, and well... There he was."

The general concensus was that the man she had found was the result of the combination of one of the heartless with the Nobody that had appeared. Lexira stated that it wasn't impossible.

"The Org had talked about finding someone to do that for them, if Kingdom Hearts wasn't enough." She'd said, also stating that whoever was able to do that would equally be able to split a human being in two. But not into a nobody and a heartless. Though she didn't know, at the time, what else someone could be divided into.

It was decided that Ethers could be created by dividing someone in two parts. One would feel hated and sorrow while the other part would only be sympathetic and compassionate.

"So I really did...?" Kairi asked, not daring to finish the rest of her question. Lexira frowned and nodded, crossing her arms as she still stared at the dormant body.

"It seems impossible, but then again... If light can destroy heartless and dark creatures, I don't see why it would be able to reunite a vessel with a heart. It might not be its own heart, but when a nobody searched a heart, does the original owner matter to it? It already has memories, although it's not aware of their meaning... All it needs is to be whole" Lexira stipulated, closing her eyes in thought.

"...what would happened if two hearts were combined? Without necessarily coming from two heartless?" Riku asked, suddenly appearing to be interested in the entire story.

"That's not something I'd try." Mickey answered, seeing that not even the woman who had been raised in darkness could answer. "Having two hearts in one body could cause a lot of damage to the owner. They'd probably feel things twice as much as any of us, not to mention that they might influence Kingdom Hearts, or something having to do with it."

"Ethers..." Sora whispered to himself, attracting all eyes upon him. "What if... The seven princesses are the beings that were created from splitting a person in two?"

"You're saying the word 'Princess' would actually be their kind's name?" Lexira pursued, turning towards the keybearer, staring at him intently.

"Think about it; none of them have ever been tempted by darkness, and they're all selfless, carein and kind. It seems like they've never hated anyone." Sora added, trying to make sense of his won thoughts.

"But they've all be sad or deceived before, right?" Kairi said,frowning lightly.

"All living things face deception." Riku stated quietly, turning his gaze back to the sleeping man. "They may not know what it is, they might perceive it as something to pull joy from, or something to learn from."

Lexira nodded slowly. It made sense; to her, at least.

"Wait. Kairi's one of the seven princesses." She shot, snapping her stare in the young woman's direction. "That has to have something to do with it. Either she's got some special power the others don't have..."

"Or they're all capable of the same thing." Mickey breathed, heading out of the room to run down the hall.

--------------------

"Let me out of here."

"I can't do that!"

"I don't want to hurt you. Let me out."

"Then sit down and wait."

Etihw was desperately trying to hold back the seventh Ether, blocking the only way out of the white room, the one Iriak had been held in, dormant, for so long. A machine in the far left corner emitted a dull beep. It was a permanent reminder that Iriak, before her, was no longer connected to what had kept him alive for so long. He was very well capable of everything he had once been.

"Please, just sit there and wait for—"

"Get out of the way, Etihw."

The woman jumped at the voice and the mention of her name; the doors behind her had been opened without her noticing. Not even the look on Iriak's face had changed. His eyes hadn't even trailed away from her own.

"Allerednic?" Iriak snorted, crossing his arms, finally drawing his black eyes away from the woman's. "I feel special, greeted in such a way after nearly dying and being on life support for... How many years, now?"

"Keep the smug remarks for Xeiri."

"Oh, the great leader, now? I'm surprised your _majesty_ even heard knews of my awakening. I don't supposed your little gossip girl had anything to do with it?" Iriak snarled, obviously not very pleased at the idea of meeting his leader.

"Oh, Elleb? Gods no. It seems you woke up on Xeiri's orders. Though I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't recognise their voice."

Etihw stood between the two, uncertain of which to defend. The running leader-in-training, or the once-defeated Jack of all Trades?

"Etihw." Allerednic growled, glaring daggers at the woman. "I told you to get out of the way. Go tell Leira that he's awake. She'll be overjoyed." He ordered, sarcasm nearly dripping from his mouth.

"Y-yeah, whatever." The Ether muttered. Lord knew she didn't want to be around when those two were going to duke it out.

-----

"Iriak's awake?!" Leira yelled, instnatly forgetting whatever matter she was trying to solve in her mind to focus on the one at hand. It took her a moment to react to the news that Etihw had fed her.

"Yeah, I know! I was sure he'd stay in that vege—"

"You don't get it, E, this is just what we needed!" Leira cried, almost thanking wahtever was out there for her fulfilled wish. "Aller's been wailing for ages about how we'd have to wait for Iriak's awakening before acting on the worlds. Now that he's awake, we have all the firepower we're _ever_ going to need!"

--------------------

"He's awake."

Lexira slowly turned her head towards Kairi. For some odd reason, she seemed to know exactly what the girl was talking about. Whilst Kairi herself seemed under a transe, and blissfully unaware of anything and everything around her.

"Who's awake?" Sora asked, taking a slightly panicked edge to his voice.

"Her Ether." Mickey answered somberly, frowning at the redhead. "Iriak. I had personally taken care of him ten years ago to prevent the Reign from doing anything. Having him wake up isn't anything good."

Lexira grunted, bolting out of the room. She was quickly followed by Riku, who fluidly ran after her, as though it had been planned. She crossed the yard swiftly, carefully avoiding the heartless that lunged towards her, making her way to the hangar. She was going for the gummi ship when she was intercepted by Riku. He'd grabbed her arm and vilently slammed her into the nearest(and largest) pipe.

"Let me go!" she scrieched, struggling against his iron grip. "If they want me, I'll hand my self over if they won't hurt any of you!"

"And let them win and have what they want?" Riku growled, silver hairs prickling the sides of Lexira's face. She winced; they would all lose if something wasn't done soon.

"If it means you'll be safe—"

"They'll turn us into Ethers once they figure out how to do it without have a princess made out of us."

There was a hiss; Sunshine had followed his master to the Gummi hangar indemn, apparently spared by the heartless. Lexira tried to shoo him off when she and Riku were completely caught off guard.

"Leave her alone you lousy oaf, or I'll claw your eyes off and eat 'em!"

* * *

_Special thanks to **Ishhyyy**, who's left the most adorable reviews on two of the three chapters already up. I really like your brownies, you know. C:_

_Also, thanks to **earth2water1element** for the muchly needed encouragement to continue writing._

_I appreciated both your reviews, and I hope that I'll get more soon! I love to know what you people think about my stories, whether it's to tell me my character is too Mary-Sue or to say that it's a work of art._

_Love you all! C:_


End file.
